The Pre- Reformation Churches of Berwickshire. 123 



been preserved from the old building. Embedded in the east 

 wall of the structure lately taken down, was a sepulchral slab of 

 red sandstone, with a cross carved upon it in very low relief, but 

 bearing no inscription. It is figured on p. 110 of Mr Muir's 

 volume, ' Characteristics of Old Church Architecture in Scotland.' 

 Built into the same wall was another monumental stone of 

 smaller size, having a pair of shears and the initials A.E. 

 incised upon it, and a date which appears to read 1564, but the 

 second figure is unfortunately mutilated. In the south wall 

 was a stone with the inscription, — 



AULD EYMES 



EACE 

 LYEES IN THIS 



PLACE. 



Mr Tait, in his notice of Earlston contributed to the Club's 

 Proceedings for 1866, states: "Tradition says the stone was 

 transferred from the old church which stood some yards distant 

 from the present edifice. In 1782 the ancient inscription was 

 defaced by some senseless fellow in a drunken frolic, but the 

 clergyman compelled him to replace it in the same words as 

 before. The effaced characters were very ancient, the present 

 are quite modern." These ancient memorials, it is satisfactory 

 to know, have been carefully preserved, and are to be displayed 

 in the interior of the new church. 



ECCLES 

 Parish is commonly understood to have derived its name 

 from the number of churches {ecclesia.) situated within its 

 boundaries ; and when we find a similar etymology sanctioned 

 in the case of Ecclesfechan, by so competent an authority as Dr 

 Skene, we must be content to accept it. The parish is not a 

 large one, but in pre-Eeformation times it contained, in addition 

 to the Cistercian Pbiory or Nunnery at Eccles, the Chapblries 

 of BiRGHAM, Leitholm, and Mersington. We may gather from 

 the names of the ancient parochial divisions that the chapel 

 at Birgham was dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene, that at 

 Leitholm to the Virgin, and that at Mersington to St. John. 

 The last-named appears to have left no traces whatever. Those 

 at Birgham and Leitholm have also long since perished, but the 



